What if everything you did was monitored? What if beyond that, everything that was deemed “problematic” was investigated or made to “disappear”? What if you got to become the Big Brother of George Orwell’s 1984? Well, indie developers Osmotic Studios and publisher Surprise Attack will be giving you an opportunity to step into the prying eyes of an organization that fulfills the role of being a Social Justice Governor for both your security and for your life.

Orwell has been making the rounds with a neat little announcement trailer that indicates that the game will be launched on Steam for PC in the latter half of 2016. You can check out the trailer below, where it gives you a small glimpse into the sort of invasive and totalitarian intrusion you’ll be employing against citizens as you attempt to root out problematic persons.

The description of the game over on the Steam page is delightfully ripe with controversial possibilities. It’s a little bit like a cross between Eagle Eye and Papers, Please…

“Orwell is a new governmental security program that has the power to survey the online presence of every person in The Nation. It can monitor all personal communications and access any computer. To preserve the privacy of citizens, human researchers examine the data Orwell finds and decide which pieces of information should be passed on to the security forces, and which should be rejected.”

Players will have scour through various identities and individuals, with absolutely nothing being off limits.

Anonymity is dead in the world of Orwell.

It’s fascinating because one of the things that Social Justice Warriors continually tout is that ridding the world of anonymity would reduce harassment, death threats and rape threats. The game Orwell will give gamers a front row seat at how an invasive security AI (along with a helping human companion) can sift through every inch of someone’s personal life, where anonymity does not exist and privacy is a relic of ancient times.

It’s not too far off from where we are today, but the game ramps it up even further by putting players in the uncomfortable position of possibly having security forces bring the heavy hammer of justice down on potentially innocent individuals. Much like Papers, Please, the morality here is not black and white.

It will be very cool to see how this game will be received and how well it’ll play. You can keep track of it as it heads toward its late 2016 release by checking out the Steam store page.

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Billy has been rustling Jimmies for years covering video games, technology and digital trends within the electronics entertainment space. The GJP cried and their tears became his milkshake. Need to get in touch? Try the Contact Page.

I was going to say it’s essentially reality as it is today, though in a slightly more dystopian future, the devs of this game would vanish mysteriously and the game would be removed from public eye for “encouraging terrorism” or failing to meet “approved standards”.

We’re nearly there!

Hawk Hopper

I wonder if it was a deliberate choice to have the character profiles in this game look like Polygon “writer” profiles.

Heh, the one lady they use in the teaser trailer looks like Randi Harper in Polygon vision. Either it’s deliberately on the nose with its references or it’s the most coincidental imagery used for an indie game this century.